1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments relate to a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) panel and a method of manufacturing the LCD panel. In particular, exemplary embodiments relate to an LCD panel including a liquid crystal composition and a method of manufacturing the LCD panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an image is displayed on an LCD panel according to light transmittance of a liquid crystal layer, which is electrically controlled. An LCD panel having a patterned vertical alignment (“PVA”) mode, which is a type of LCD panel having a vertical alignment (“VA”) mode, has been developed to improve a viewing angle by aligning liquid crystal molecules in different directions by patterning a transparent electrode and forming liquid crystal domains. To solve the problem of low aperture ratio due to the patterning of the transparent electrode in a PVA mode LCD panel, an LCD panel may include a pixel electrode having a micro-slit pattern and a continuous common electrode formed on an opposite substrate.
The LCD panel having the micro-slit pattern improves the alignment reliability of the liquid crystal molecules by pretilting a portion of the liquid crystal molecules in a liquid crystal layer using a photoactive monomer, which has properties similar to liquid crystal molecules. The photoactive monomer is called a reactive mesogen.
The photoactive monomer that is not cured may remain within the liquid crystal layer during the manufacture of the LCD panel. When the photoactive monomer remains within the liquid crystal layer, the photoactive monomer may be cured by the backlight in a specific area during driving of the LCD panel, thereby inducing a non-uniform pretilt of the liquid crystal molecules. The non-uniform pretilt may display as an afterimage on the LCD panel and become one factor in a reduced display quality. To solve this problem, energy supplied during the curing of the photoactive monomer may be increased, or the exposure time may be lengthened to maximize the curing rate of the photoactive monomer.
However, the increasing of the illumination intensity of the light source to increase the energy for the curing may result in increased power consumption and increased manufacturing cost. In addition, the liquid crystal molecules and/or an alignment layer may be damaged, deteriorating the display quality. Further, when the exposure time is increased, the processing time for manufacturing the LCD panel increases, further reducing productivity.